J. MARC WHEAT: Another Hope For Parental Rights

In June, the Supreme Court took an important step restoring parental rights in Mahmoud v. Taylor, but conservatives must not be complacent until the right to direct the education of one’s child is secured for all parents. With Foote v. Ludlow School Committee, the Supreme Court has another opportunity to restore parental rights—regardless of religious practice.

Through Pierce v. Society of Sisters in 1925, the Supreme Court upheld parents’ right to send their children to private schools denying “any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only.” Further, since the Supreme Court has ruled that schooling is compulsory, teachers ought not impose harmful ideologies on the students.

As seen increasingly across the country, school districts proactively conceal their efforts to socially transition children. In Ludlow, the school district’s “Guidance for Massachusetts Public Schools Creating a Safe and Supportive School Environment” directs school personnel to speak with students before discussing the latter’s “gender nonconformity or transgender status” with parents and to discuss “appropriate pronoun use” for communicating with their parents.

As seen in Ludlow and in similar cases, school districts have used alternate names and pronouns when in earshot of parents, while announcing over the intercom to avoid notifying siblings, and have even excluded certain teachers from communications whom the school deemed threats to inform parents (see our amicus briefs in Vitsaxaki v. Skaneateles Central School District and Heaps v. Delaware Valley Regional High School Board of Education